Rubble sacks

[Snow]

The compost is certainly the costly part, other stuff you can do cheaply. £2-2.50 for 2kulos of seed potatoes in Wilkos at the moment, though I plan to get mine from a potato day.

If you have space for a composter or two then it's all good. I don't really but I get the most cost effective decent compost for the containers and it later ends up on the patch. My soil is very good but it's too clay so compost, even with much of the fertility gone, is a great additive. In a few years once the structure of the patch is better, I may find it harder to justify growing spuds in containers of new compost. But the quality of home grown spuds is ten times better than anything in the shops, in my view, and if you can maximise your crop through taking onboard lots of tips it's well worth the effort.

[Nannysally99]

We have been growing spuds in recycling bags etc for a couple of years. The initial outlay of compost is a tad expensive in year one, but last year I just refertilised the compost and used it again. The plan is to use it again this year, so that will be 3 seasons. Got BFB and growmore ready. Anything else I might need fertiliser wise?

[Kristen]

I know it's different growing in containers etc but if I was to buy 125lts of compost plus 6 seed potatoes, spend time planting, watering & feeding then waiting 4 months to hopefully harvest a good crop........I would just buy a sack o' spuds.

I agree that the compost is expensive, but the way I see it:

I grow earliest earlies in containers. They are relatively expesnive ("Jersey Royals" and the like) in the shops at that time, and new potatoes are like Sweetcorn - the sugars start changing to starch from the moment you harvest them - so the sooner in the pot the better they taste. I can also choose what varieties I grow ... so for me its much more about flavour than cost, although I certainly resent needless / excess cost

My compost gets reused, usually for Carrots and then onto the plot, but un-diseased compost can be reused for spuds, with fresh fertiliser added.

Personally I wouldn't grow in large containers - 3 or 4 seed potatoes suits me - we tip out a bag and want to cook them "soon" so they are not stored for long, so I would prefer more smaller containers - 50L say - than one/several large ones.

[Spunky]

Thanks all I'm going to do 3 rows and chuck whatever left in a few bags and see what happens